Whole Foods’ John Mackey: We must change how we think about capitalism | Reason Interview

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ค. 2024
  • The co-founder of Whole Foods discusses his new memoir, "The Whole Story: Adventures in Love, Life, and Capitalism" as he launches his new holistic health venture, Love.Life.
    00:00- Introduction
    00:48- The Whole Story: Adventures in Love, Life, and Capitalism
    03:45- Capitalism disrupts the status quo
    07:57- Whole Foods’ bumpy start
    15:02- How to foster rich environments for capitalism & innovation
    19:00- Why socialism ALWAYS fails
    21:05- John Mackey’s upbringing
    26:38- Where is the next generation heading?
    29:53- The Capitalism scapegoat
    32:36- Ad: BankOnYourself.com
    34:27- LSD and other psychedelics
    38:15- Applying “Expand into love, don’t contract into fear” to business
    40:41- Conscious capitalism as a management philosophy
    45:45- Unionization at Whole Foods
    51:11- The pros & cons of selling Whole Foods to Amazon
    59:48- Mackey’s new venture: Love.Life
    01:05:19- John Mackey’s secrets to health
    01:09:38- Capitalism: an infinite game
    reason.com/video
    ---
    Today's guest is John Mackey, the co-founder and former CEO of Whole Foods, who just released his memoir, The Whole Story: Adventures in Love, Life, and Capitalism. As befits the entrepreneur who revolutionized grocery shopping from a grim, pragmatic necessity into an exciting, multi-sensory adventure, Mackey's story is far from conventional and we talk frankly about the failures, successes, and psychedelics he encountered while reshaping how Americans think about food, fitness, and free enterprise. We also discuss Love.Life, the chain of holistic health and wellness clubs he's opening this summer.
    #podcast #capitalism #health #business #food #socialism

ความคิดเห็น • 78

  • @TimothySielbeck
    @TimothySielbeck หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    I remember when whole foods was just an odd, quirky, store on the west side of downtown Austin. It had same amazing items that couldn't be bought anywhere else. It lost its appeal when to me when it started to grow and become just like all the other grocery chains.

  • @SteveTwerkel
    @SteveTwerkel หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    This guy is like my spirit animal.

  • @cadenbigler
    @cadenbigler หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    God damn almost a thousand dollars a month for his new venture. I guess I'm not the target demographic

  • @Appleblade
    @Appleblade หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    lol... John taking the opportunity to get everything off his chest. Love it!

  • @davidanalyst671
    @davidanalyst671 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    "what is capitalism?" "Proceeds to describe free markets"

    • @chrimony
      @chrimony หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      He nailed it right at the beginning of his response. Private owners of the means of production. Capitalism is part of the free market.

    • @ickster23
      @ickster23 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@@chrimonyTrue, but Capitalism only exists for approximately a decade in any new nation. Within a few years it morphs into Crony Capitalism and Corporatism. You will see vestiges of a free market in mom and pop level shops, but as soon as one of these enterprises threatens a big player, then laws and regulations will be bought to eliminate the competition. Socialism is no different. It quickly morphs into Crony Socialism and Communism. The real issue with any economic model is the abysmal characteristics of those who seek and attain political power.

    • @roymarshall_
      @roymarshall_ หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Capitalism requires free markets. Free markets require capitalism. Capitalism is just a free market of capital goods.

  • @youtubeaccount7770
    @youtubeaccount7770 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    Now that he’s set for life and suppressed unions from forming he wants to make it more difficult and expensive for others to do what he did.

    • @adamsdav2440
      @adamsdav2440 หลายเดือนก่อน

      He says at 47:00 he's not against unions. He say's unions are competitors and a consequence for bad management.

  • @mindsharemonkey
    @mindsharemonkey หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Very interesting discussion. It is only marred by an insistence of comparing capitalism to a boogie man of Chinese and Russian, Cuban "socialism". Milton Friedman's Two Cheers for Capitalism at least admitted that capitalism isn't perfect. Shouldn't the discussion be more about how to incrementally improve capitalist models vs some academic binary of capitalism vs. socialism? (For example, was the shareholder capitalism that forced the sale of Whole Foods an inherently good thing or was it an instance of market forces distorting the social goods of capitalism? - this would have been an interesting line of inquiry.)

  • @YouilAushana
    @YouilAushana หลายเดือนก่อน

    32:25 - thanks people are so unaware of their ego

  • @jethrobodine9155
    @jethrobodine9155 13 วันที่ผ่านมา

    I've never been to Whole Foods, Kroger's or Costco. My main stores are the Grocery Outlet, Walmart and Dollar Tree. I shop at Trader Joe's once in a while for a few items they carry. I'm a vegan for the animals and a libertarian, so I'm not by any means"anti-capitalist", and I'm not motivated by envy, although I think most advocates of capitalism are defenders of crony capitalism and it's hidden coercion. I don't have a mobile phone and never plan to get one. I have no intention of ever strapping a monitoring device on my arm. I've had maddening experiences with AI customer service. I live below the poverty line, but that's my responsibility and choice, and it's not that bad, though I do think the crony-capitalist mixed economy regulation state does keep people like me down, not just economically, but spiritually. Mackey and Reason with their light, easy-going Hayekenism seem okay with this kind of "pragmatic" oppression. We live in very different worlds.

  • @adamsdav2440
    @adamsdav2440 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Did anyone else make it to the LSD conversation?

  • @YouilAushana
    @YouilAushana หลายเดือนก่อน

    44:00 gotta fix malinvestments for the business train to reach the end of the track.

  • @jethrobodine9155
    @jethrobodine9155 27 วันที่ผ่านมา

    The larger question is how much these business giants grew from actual laissez-faire capitalism and how much they grew from legalistically savvy obsessives who had the neurology and aptitude to game the crony-capitalist, business-government, good-ole-boy alliance. I'm all for real capitalism, but I don't think Reason and Mackey have the same idea of it as I do.

  • @YouilAushana
    @YouilAushana หลายเดือนก่อน

    39:07 - this list include shame?

  • @billhammett174
    @billhammett174 หลายเดือนก่อน

    So is it fun working for Jeff and Company?

  • @pablorages1241
    @pablorages1241 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Surprising ... didn't think the person who started Whole Foods would have these views ... pretty sure most of his customers wouldn't agree with many of his ideas

    • @adamsdav2440
      @adamsdav2440 หลายเดือนก่อน

      The truth is those people aren't customers anymore.

  • @GreenAppelPie
    @GreenAppelPie หลายเดือนก่อน +7

    If y’all want to understand good organic produce, go to Italy!

  • @chrisdryer
    @chrisdryer หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    Funny how he says people are afraid of new innovations and yet he made a business off of people fearing GMO and wanting Organics for this reason even though they don’t know what it means exactly.

  • @Appleblade
    @Appleblade หลายเดือนก่อน

    Yike. Love.Life is going to get attacked from all sides if it's even remotely successful. Imagine all the businesses who will see damage if people flooded into an actually effective healthcare lifestyle.

  • @elishevajones6730
    @elishevajones6730 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    I applaud the creation of Whole Foods, but after Amazon bought Whole Foods, I boycott Whole Foods. Amazon trashed the original business model of Whole Foods.

    • @adamsdav2440
      @adamsdav2440 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Once all the hippies quit, I then knew whole foods had got into bed with the devil.

  • @stevebeschakis9775
    @stevebeschakis9775 หลายเดือนก่อน

    So he created a wonderful retail institution then sold it to the devil.

  • @pappaflammyboi5799
    @pappaflammyboi5799 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    Most of Whole Foods wealth and growth wasn't created by their own efforts, it was from the use of cheap capital and cheap banking finance which they used to buy up competitors.
    Banks and VCs aren't designed to support capitalism, they're mostly about personal enrichment, corporate cronyism, and monopoly practices.
    I'll give the guy credit for trying, but he needs to be honest about how he got to where he is now, and that wasn't by the sweat of his own brow. It was created using fancy lawyers and fiat banking financial instruments. Close, but no cigar...

    • @timonsmeets387
      @timonsmeets387 หลายเดือนก่อน

      So it was created by capitalism?

    • @pappaflammyboi5799
      @pappaflammyboi5799 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@timonsmeets387 No, it was coopted by fascists and sociopaths. There's nothing wrong with the theory of capitalism. Government corrupts most things eventually. It always needs heavy checks and balances.

    • @pappaflammyboi5799
      @pappaflammyboi5799 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      @@timonsmeets387 Well, that didn't take long. TH-cam yanked my comment. Speaking of authoritarian-ism...

    • @pappaflammyboi5799
      @pappaflammyboi5799 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@meiko_kaji I responded to you, or possibly someone else, and the comment got taken down. Not including the OP...

  • @kylewatson5133
    @kylewatson5133 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    The words capitalism and socialism have zero meaning, ignore them. Do you take money by force? Let's call that something else and then get rid of it.

    • @kokoromarudi7717
      @kokoromarudi7717 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      That's neither of them. That's just a way to enforce socialism

    • @kylewatson5133
      @kylewatson5133 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@kokoromarudi7717 Socialism can be completely voluntary.

    • @markjohnson8260
      @markjohnson8260 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      ​@@kylewatson5133As I see it, possibly up to a population level of maybe 10.

    • @tomspettigue8791
      @tomspettigue8791 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@kylewatson5133 neither can be completely voluntary. no one has figured out how to gin up a system that fundamentally doesn't rely on force.

    • @kylewatson5133
      @kylewatson5133 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      @@tomspettigue8791 You're not making a distinction between initiating violence and reciprocating violence.
      Taxation is initiation of force. Theft is the initiation of force.
      Defending your property that you have infused with your labor is not initiating force, it is reciprocity. Defending yourself from bodily harm is not initiation of force. To equate offense with defense is a monumental blunder.

  • @adamsdav2440
    @adamsdav2440 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Whole Foods is doing everything wrong in 2024, they have lost a majority of my business.

    • @zarbins
      @zarbins หลายเดือนก่อน

      Haven't been to Whole Foods in awhile, what are they doing in 2024 that is bothering you?

    • @adamsdav2440
      @adamsdav2440 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@zarbins The palm scanner for NWO 2030 chip ID bothers me the most!

  • @elkinjohn
    @elkinjohn หลายเดือนก่อน

    IMHO I don't use the term Capitalism... I use freedom instead... Fascism is a bigger issue than Communism or Socialism... and in crony Capitalism companies are privately owned. Some people against the current system are actuallly against the Fascism... I also don't us the term competition...

    • @grantwhitley6857
      @grantwhitley6857 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Do you think lower socioeconomic status citizen actually have any “freedom” in a capitalist society. There is no personal freedom to do anything when corporations underpay provide mo health care and you rent your home from some asshole who doesn’t care about you. There is little choice of life for laymen in a corporation and true free market economy

  • @GreenAppelPie
    @GreenAppelPie หลายเดือนก่อน +8

    Any more video like this and I’m unsubbed

    • @Nemerson74
      @Nemerson74 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      You didnt even watch it lol

    • @Killllian
      @Killllian หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      Yes, I agree.
      In future, PICTURES ONLY PLEASE.
      VIDEOS MAKE ME FEEL CONFUSED AND UPSET.
      I will not ask again.

    • @davidanalyst671
      @davidanalyst671 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      what is wrong with you?

    • @jps101574
      @jps101574 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      It was the best video I've seen from this channel.
      Do you have any intelligent disagreements with the interview? I won't hold my breath.

    • @Justin_Beaver564
      @Justin_Beaver564 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      WTF?

  • @CariMachet
    @CariMachet หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    Hahhahaha I boycott Whole Foods and have for years > entrepreneurs???? He bought up rival health food stores in this region and closed them > capitalism doesn’t have monopolies??? Capitalism has a free market ???? Lies !!! He hasn’t lived outside of America and doesn’t understand that capitalism is NOT new

    • @RichardKing-sx6xc
      @RichardKing-sx6xc หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      *Monopolies are awesome!!!*
      🗽💛🖤😎👍

    • @chrimony
      @chrimony หลายเดือนก่อน

      Practically every grocery store sells organic foods. Gotta love the Marxists, still pining for their utopia.

  • @Hedgeflexlfz
    @Hedgeflexlfz หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    whole foods is over price trash

  • @draj8590
    @draj8590 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Capitalism leads to monopolies, thats why a handful of corporations own everything under an umbrella.

    • @marshallkobe
      @marshallkobe หลายเดือนก่อน

      The guys who says “socialism leads to communism” never understand the principal that capitalisms goal is monopoly.

    • @davidanalyst671
      @davidanalyst671 หลายเดือนก่อน

      every government in human history has failed. Governments lead to monopolies, and it leads to society failure. Free markets do not lead to monopolies.

    • @chrimony
      @chrimony หลายเดือนก่อน

      Monopolist companies become a victim of their own success. Capitalism is the best system.

    • @johnsmithers8913
      @johnsmithers8913 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      Everything leads to Monopolies. You think socialism is not a monopoly? It's the ultimate monopoly.
      The only difference is that corporate monopolies will inevitably collapse because of laziness and rot and small business can then grow as corporations become inept....even in protecting their own monopolies.
      Governments can become lazy and rot, but have the police, army, and system to crush any opposition no matter how incompetent and poor they are.

    • @kokoromarudi7717
      @kokoromarudi7717 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      ​@@marshallkobe principle* and you don't even know your own literature. Socialism does lead to communism. Read up on Marx if you want to spread proper propaganda.

  • @consciousnobody
    @consciousnobody 5 วันที่ผ่านมา

    Why dislikes? Huh